Re: [9fans] echo -n

["Gorka guardiola" <paurea@gmail.com>]

On 11/21/06, Francisco J Ballesteros <nemo@lsub.org> wrote:
> Yes, but, what does it mean to write zero bytes?
> I know, I know.
> But my point is, does it make sense?

I am not particularly disturbed by a 0 write meaning "send
an eof" as Russ said, or the idea of an empty message,
which does not necessarily mean the pipe is closed. It is just a
matter of conventions.

> If you want a write of something weird to mean something, you might
> just use a write of something weird, or a control operation kept appart.

Yes, I agree with you, you can send a special character or message. I
do not think zero sized messages are impossible to survive without
except...

... what about a network connection/files?. I think that may be a better case
for or against zero writes.  Because a network connections should not
be different from pipes, should they?. How do you send (or receive) an
empty datagram?. Does it make sense?. Do other os's do it? because we
have to cope with it in that case too.

>
> A related question, can we create a file with an empty name?
> Is what happens a bug or a feature?
>

Dunno, is it really related?. If you mean
an empty string, that should be ok shouldn't it?. You should be able
to manipulate a file with name '\0' without problem I guess. I haven't
tried or read the code dealing with this though, to answer the question.
--
- curiosity sKilled the cat